8 Things We Stopped Caring About Traveling Full Time

I have read about the positive effects of travel and even written about them myself. Full-time travel has definitely changed all of us in certain ways. For Makai, the changes or developments really, have been the most noticeable. He doesn’t suffer from anxiety or struggle to make new friends. He is accepting of all kinds of people and loves to try new foods. I have no doubt that traveling, meeting different people, and the constant exposure to new cultures has helped him build confidence, not fear as much as I did when I was a kid.

We just wrapped up six months in Canada visiting family. While we were home the changes in all of us became glaringly evident. Specifically, changes in behavior brought about by the unique perspective we’ve all gained traveling. Certain things that were once quite important to us didn’t seem to matter as much. Here are eight things, I am a bit surprised and quite happy to say, we just don’t don’t care about anymore because of our experiences traveling.

1.Getting a professional haircut

I love short hair so I used to spend as much as $65 for a haircut every six weeks. Sadly, I was frequently disappointed with my haircuts. But, it would only be six weeks until I could get another, hopefully, better cut anyway. When we first started traveling I had a hard time deciding who I could trust to cut my hair.

One of our Airbnb hosts in Colombia recommended her hairdresser. I went to him for a cut and was like many times before unhappy with the result. Rob said, “Why don’t you let me cut your hair?” His reasoning was my dissatisfaction with professional cutters so why not give him a go. He didn’t think he could do much worse than the pros.We’d save some money and I could get a cut whenever I wanted. Sounded good to me!

Now my Husband is my hairdresser. Something I truly never thought I’d consider.

My new hairdresser cut my hair for this picture. The funny thing is his cut was free and looks the same as all the others I used to pay money for.

2. Having new clothes

I worked in the retail clothing business for over 25 years. As a result, I was always buying new clothes. To be a good example for dress code, to replace faded blacks, or a try brand new style, I could always justify buying something new. I would shop for Rob as well. One of the benefits of working in the industry was getting great discounts on clothes. That made it even easier for me to jam our closets full of shirts, pants, dresses, sweaters and shoes.

Shoes, new shoes were Rob’s weakness. He loved to buy new shoes! In stores, online, he was always looking for a deal on shoes. Living out of suitcases full time helped instantly cure us of constantly acquiring new duds. But something else happened to us over time. We stopped needing or even wanting to buy new clothes. We’ve definitely become more thrifty, so part of it is the cost to buy new clothes. Especially the kinds of clothes we’ve come to really love.

We found we could shop at thrift stores and find the brands and styles we loved to wear at a fraction of the cost. Sometimes we even find new clothes there as well. Our best finds have been a new Sunice Typhoon waterproof jacket for me, new Children’s Place Jeans for Mak, and new Banana Republic Jeans for Rob. All of those new things together cost less than $10!

We still love a deal but it’s got to an incredible one on something we need before we’ll part with our money now.

3. Standing out

Rob walking around in downtown Buenos Aries. There is no denying he’s a tourist here.

When we first started traveling we focused really hard on blending in or trying to anyway. This proved to be almost impossible, especially with our distinct Canadian pallor in countries where we don’t speak the local language well. So now we don’t even try, we smile a lot more and let people stare. We are respectful of local customs in the places we visit but that’s the extent of our efforts to avoid sticking out like a sore thumb.

Our experience has been people are curious, they ‘re not thinking negative things about us. Most will smile back at us and try to engage us. We rarely have trouble finding help when we need it and most times we make a friend or get excellent recommendations from locals that recognize we’re visitors.

4. Being right

We spend more time together than most families and we’re all type “A” personalities. If each one of us had to be right all the time I think we’d end up killing each other. Our home life is all about compromise to prevent injury and maintain some semblance of harmony. The same is true when we go out in the world now as well.

Let’s face it there’s no “being right” with people like border guards and TSA agents. We choose to pick our battles wisely and avoid flying off the handle. Doing so has helped us avoid sticky situations that could have caused a lot more pain than simply biting our tongues.

5. Buying souvenirs

Rob and I traveled a lot before we embarked on this adventure. We were always planning our next big trip. Our house was filled with treasures we’d found on our travels. We loved to buy mementos so much we even made a business selling cool things we’d find traveling back home in Canada.

Obviously, having limited space inhibits the urge to buy a lot of souvenirs. So we do so on a much more limited scale. Here are our self-imposed rules for buying souvenirs. The item must be small, representative of the place we are visiting, and/or something we can use regularly in daily life. This has helped us choose wisely.

We still do carry specific mementos and talismans from home,though. Two special Christmas ornaments and two good luck charms Rob bought for Mak and I before we left to travel.

The dog angel is to remember our dog, Kiwi. She was going to travel with us but sadly, she died suddenly before we left.

6. Being prepared for everything

This is something that affected me the most. I would drive myself almost crazy attempting to be perfectly prepared for every situation. Before setting out to do something I needed to have all the information and know exactly what to say or do and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t go. I took some calculated risks but not feeling confident without all the details has prevented me from doing things I should have personally and professionally.

Traveling perpetually has exposed me to more new things than many people experience in their entire lives. I now have the presence of mind to say “I may never be here again, so I should just do it”. That mindset has helped me care less about preparation and more about living in the moment.

7. Stressing about getting on an airplane

I used to be really scared to fly and would have anxiety for weeks and sometimes months before a flight. I loved traveling so much I flew despite my fear. But, I needed to medicate with Gravol and a stiff drink not to totally freak out when boarding or scream when there was turbulence.

I had already taken steps to overcome my “aviophobia” (fear of flying) before we began traveling full time. I took a temporary position that involved a lot of air travel with my job. Doing so helped me feel less anxiety and I didn’t need to medicate anymore to cope. But I still had issues with take off and turbulence that kept me up days before a flight.

I can happily say after all of the flights we’ve taken so far on this journey I feel absolutely no fear of flying now. So many good flying experiences in a row has cured me of the intense fear and anxiety I used to feel before and during a flight.

8. Watching T.V.

We used to watch a considerable amount of T.V. Rob and I had multiple series we followed and we always made time to keep up to date. As we’ve traveled we have watched less and less T.V. Sometimes the apartments we rent don’t have a television or the programming is in the local language, not English. Now when we do have access to one, watching something on it isn’t as important anymore.

We have experienced many of the positive effects of travel. I can’t help wondering what our life would look like if we felt like we do now twenty years ago.

Have you experienced any positive effects of travel? If you’ve traveled, a little or a lot, how has visiting different places in the world impacted you?

About Tracey

Hello. I am glad you’re here! I’m Tracey, a freelance writer who sold everything to travel the world with my Husband and our young Son. We live with less, believing travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. I love to write and share our experiences to inspire others to travel more and live the life they dream.

Comments

Great post and we totally agree on all the points. It feels great to be free of the need for more “stuff” and I am having to learn to go with the flow a lot more as it is impossible to plan for every eventuality! Happy travels you guys.

I haven’t traveled long term the way you guys have, but I still see how much traveling has changed me in positive ways. I try not to buy new clothes often because I’d rather save the money for a trip. And traveling has made me a lot more confident when it comes to meeting and talking to new people.

So many good points here.
Conrad and I are happiest when we’re roaming around the world somewhere, but we are homebodies right now — and have been for about a year. We sit each night and tick down the episodes of each of the new series on Netflix. Those are the times I yearn to be traveling somewhere, really living! I get tired of that routine. Can’t wait to get back out there!
You three look adorable and happy — and what a great education for Mak! Best idea = Cut each other’s hair. Going to try it!

I have not been on any very long term travel adventures but I think a lot of what you’ve learned I have come across as well in my short term travels. As I have traveled more, I have definitely become more thrifty as well. Nowadays, I trade in new clothes for amazing experiences any day.

Great article and every point is TRUE! We’re retired and travel six months of each year with a backpack each. I cut my own (grey) hair, rarely wear makeup and have never, ever been happier. As others have mentioned it’s a slight reality check to return home and realize no one is interested in our adventures, but that’s always been the case since our first trip back in the 1970s. What matters is we’re living our lives on our terms, travelling the world, meeting wonderful people from all walks of life and creating wonderful memories along the way.

So true!!! I can relate to so many of these. What I love about traveling is that it makes you realize that you really do not need much in life to be happy! Everything I now own can fit into a backpack…and each time I go “home”, I realize that I used to have so much junk that I didn’t really need.

Definitely you guys made an excellent point on this page. Travel experience makes us give less importance to normal things in life. I personally got a bit messier and less organized after 15 years of intense traveling. I try not to care about unnecessary worries I use to have.

haha I love the Standing out picture in Buenos Aires… this is so typical from us, tourists. Hard not to stand out in most of places I go also. Specially in Africa which is my favorite continent.

Like you, I was in the fashion industry for almost 20 years. I was in a fitted dress, skirt suit or pantsuit almost every day. When we first started off traveling full-time, it was quite liberating to just wear jeans and a t-shirt. It’s been a year since we’ve been away and I actually miss dressing well once in awhile. Completely agree with the haircut, we are New Yorkers, you don’t even want to know how much I used to pay for a simple cut. Now, I just let it grow. Great post.

Could not agree more! Especially with buying clothes & souvenirs, and getting a professional haircut. I actually cringe at the thought of what I used to spend on clothes. My biggest take-away from traveling is learning how little you actually need.
By the way, love the photo you captured of the plane flying over the buildings!.

I’m with you on “living with less” Heather. It was so eye opening, we need only a minuscule amount of what we had accumulated throughout our life in Canada. Our last home was 3600 square feet and I felt compelled to fill it with stuff. Looking back, acquiring and living with all of that stuff was not as rewarding as I thought it would be. Nothing ever seemed good enough. I could live very comfortably in one of those tiny houses now.

I could agree with all of these. Except I still like clothes! But, I do care a lot less about wearing makeup in public now. When you’re traveling around Southeast Asia, it’s hard to commit to makeup because it’s too damn humid. So I kinda just got used to not wearing any on most days.

I definitely agree on all of this! Before traveling, I used to care so much for things like haircut and buying a lot of stuff. It was a different feeling going home even after just 2 months of travel, so much has changed within me and yet, at home nothing has changed. Travel really makes us realize the more important things in life. 🙂

It is pretty much all the same with us. We cut our hair reciprocally, we don’t buy souvenirs and buy fewer clothes which are much more comfortable as before our travels. How was it to come home and see all your relatives? We had to learn not to be disappointed that actually nobody was interested in our travel stories 😉

It was great to see family, but none of them or our friends were really interested in our travel stories either. That and the ignorant under the breath comments we heard were really disappointing. We couldn’t really relate to anyone and that felt so strange.

Fun post, Tracey! We’ve learned a lot through our travels as well, and in our less than two years of being fully retired. Things just aren’t as important. I colored my hair for years and years to cover the gray. By the time we finished walking the Camino, my hair was as dry as straw and my roots were gray. I was a mess. While in Porto (after walking) I got my hair cut but I stopped coloring it and never looked back. It didn’t matter to me anymore. Walking the Camino taught me that vanity is worthless. Over the years we’ve figured out what we like to wear and what holds up best while traveling. Now, we have a complete travel wardrobe that we keep separate from our every day clothes. It is super easy to pack for a trip because there is no question about what to take and because we like to travel lite, we each travel with a rollie and a backpack and that’s it Unfortunately, though… I still hate (and most likely always will) hate to fly. 🙂

That’s a very insightful article, and what you said is really true. Traveling allows us to realize that there are so many material things and social adherences that we don’t need. It makes us realize that trivial things such as sunsets, sceneries, meeting locals, coming home, etc. are often the most meaningful.